


Something Going Down in Waco

by Snow



Category: David Koresh: Superstar (Album)
Genre: Cults, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-24
Updated: 2011-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-28 01:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/302272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: I really like the way they tried to give a representative of the young girls Koresh seduced a bit of agency, a personality, etc. It makes me want to hear more of the story from that sort of perspective. It would be realistic for her to die at the end, but that is not compulsory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Going Down in Waco

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bliumchik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bliumchik/gifts).



It seemed like everyone else was scared. They weren't saying it, of course, and Jewel knew that they knew in their hearts that it was stupid to be. God and David would protect them.

This was what everyone's life had been leading to. Not just David's. They would live, unless God had decided they ought not to. Nothing she or David or the ATF guns could do would change that.

"Are you ready?" David asked her, and she pressed her hands a little firmer against the bullet wound in His leg.

"I've always been ready," she said, pressing a kiss to His lips.

"It could be any moment now."

Jewel smiled. She felt serene, because she knew what was expected of her. "And we could still all walk out of here. Either outcome is fine."

"You're tired of waiting," He said.

She shrugged. "It's another moment I'm spending with you. I would like to know how it ends. But I'm okay with it not ending just yet." She could handle the waiting endless hours, and she was ready for the end, but she was nervous – not scared, she absolutely refused to acknowledge that she was at all like the rest of them, not when she knew she was more like David in her fearlessness – about what would happen in between.

"I'm in pain," He said, and she let her hands press a little firmer.

"I think the bullet's supposed to come out."

"I'm fine," He said then, and Jewel didn't disagree. Whatever happened, she couldn't challenge Him. She couldn't let Him lose even a fraction of His faith. She didn't know what to believe, other than to believe in Him enough to need to know whether He was right or wrong. But she needed _Him_ to have His faith. She needed Him to continue to tell people what He knew to do.

"It's going to get worse," He said, and then a window shattered somewhere and Jewell ducked, covering her neck and head and pressing herself against the wall.

The two of them were silent for a long moment in the aftermath, and Jewel started to physically relax. She could still feel the adrenaline racing through her, shattering the peace she thought she had found. "What was that?" she asked.

He pressed His fingers to her lips. "The beginning of the beginning. Kiss me."

She leaned in close, tasting His lips. When He let her draw back a long moment later she heard the crackle of a flame. "Something's on fire," she said.

"The world's on fire," He told her, and yes, she knew that, but that didn't change the fact that something was on fire and she could smell it.

"We should put it out," she said.

"Leave me, then."

Jewel only realized when she was standing that He hadn't meant that to be an order, He'd meant it as a challenge that she was in the middle of failing. She paused, and kissed Him again. "I'll be back," she promised.

She ran into her mother when she was most of the way to the fire. "Oh, Jewel, honey," her mother said, catching her in her arms. Jewel wanted badly to protest that she wasn't a child to be treated this way, that she was David Koresh's wife and that she knew what the situation was. That she surely deserved to be treated as an adult. There were more important things to talk about, though.

"Did you put out the fire?" Jewel asked, as she tried to pull out of her mother's arms and go look at it.

"I can't," her mother said. "Sweetheart, it's too big."

"Try harder," Jewel snapped. She could feel the wave of heat and her mother trying to tug her aside. She could feel the fear budding up and she pushed it back down. She was willing to die, _ready_ for it, but she didn't want to die like this.

"I already did. We have to leave."

Jewel stared at her mother. She'd cracked under the pressure, clearly. "You know He'll never agree to that. And He _shouldn't_. We can't give up now."

Her mother let go of her, shoving her burnt palm in Jewel's face. Jewel flinched back from the smell of burnt flesh and pressed her eyes closed. "Just because you're weak doesn't mean He is," she said.

"You're weak too," insisted her mother, trying to catch Jewel back in a hug. Jewel darted back.

"Not as much as you," she snapped. "This world can't be saved. If it has to burn, then let it." Never mind that a second ago she'd been as desperate to live as her mother, that she still wished there were another way. She could already imagine David's voice in her mind telling her that there wasn't, that she was weak to even want it, and she knew that she owed Him everything.

Jewel turned on her heel, running back towards her husband. She ignored her mother calling out at her, and she ignored the people she slammed into as she passed them. If she was with David she'd know how things were supposed to be again, and He should be talking to everyone. He should be the light to guide them; it was what He was good at.

When she saw her husband again, He was where she'd left Him, but surrounded by other wives and His advisors. Jewel took a seat on the floor next to Sasha. She let the older woman wrap her up in the arms, although she found her attentions as cloying as her mother's were. Speaking of her... "My mother's trying to leave," she told David. "She says she can't stay any longer."

"She has to," He said simply, reaching out to run a hand through Jewel's hair before dropping His hand again and returning His attention to His advisors. "Nobody leaves."

Jewel watched His face, watched the sureness she saw there, as He continued to talk, to make plans for everyone. She could feel the heat of the fire, and she could feel the fear of the other people, but she was starting to feel distant again. David was wrong, or He was right, and she believed well enough that He _could_ be right. That was all she needed.


End file.
